Sea World Killer Whale Drowns His Trainer – Is It Time to, “Free Willy”?

The theme park practice of capturing wild animals and turning them into side shows has resulted in the death of another trainer. It’s the third time this killer whale, Tilikum, has been associated with the demise of a human being. Tilikum is Sea World’s largest whale, a massive bull who has sired a number of offspring during his twenty-eight years in captivity. Public outcry appears to be on the side of the whales, although it’s doubtful whether a multimillion-dollar industry can be swayed to do the right thing, if it has an impact on the theme park’s greatest attraction.

Sea World might be surprised though, in terms of the amount of support it would get if it would invest the (undoubtably huge) expense to return the whales to the ocean. The question is whether it can even be considered as a feasible option. The animals who were bred in captivity may never survive or learn to hunt on their own. The older ones may not be able to revive their ancient ways, renew the migration patterns, or find the family pods from whence they came.

People in the Pacific Northwest are familiar with the sight of whales, traveling in their groups, spouting from their blowholes and breaching and playing in the ocean, when life is as it should be. We don’t need to see them with flaccid dorsal fins, tagging poles and waving fins from a bathtub.

I used to love watching whales and dolphins performing, and in fact modeled my training methods after these trainers. Now, a trip to Sea World would be a little bit worriesome: The sight of a group of huge, stressed-out whales, slapping their massive flukes with trainers skipping around them like the proverbial dangling carrots. The chief animal officer at Georgia Aquarium noted that if a killer whale is frustrated or confused, there are only so many ways to handle it. He added that, if a 12,000 pound whale decides to grab you, there isn’t too much you can do about it.